Welcome To My Casa Bella

My Casa Bella- means-my beautiful home- but it can mean so many other things. How you make your home a home. The sounds of children or pets playing. The aroma of scones in the oven or a lilac candle burning. The flowers blooming in your garden. The home grown vegetables ready to be picked. Grandma's quilt at the foot of the bed. A fire to curl up to with a good book. Or just a family spending time together with love, laughter and a good time.

Friday, April 11, 2014

I drive past this garden center for work once a week and I've had to control myself from stopping in because the weather was still chilly, nights were still in the low 30's

BUT finally weather has been steady low 60's nights are in the upper 30's to low 40's and I could plant Spring flowers.

I LOVE LOVE Ranunculus flowers, they look like roses and the colors they come in are amazing.

They just put them out and I had to control how many to buy.

I have two wall hanging planters so I bought the same flowers for both but in different colors.

Here's the Pink planter:

A Ranunculus in the center, Prim Roses on either side

and Pansies front and center.

This one is at the side of our home, at the side deck.

Here's the Orange planter:

Same flowers in this planter, this one is at the front of our home.

And a box of pansies as well on our deck:

We have issues with lots and lots of squirrels here and they love to deconstruct my flower pots, last summer they dug them up and I'd find them on the ground,

needless to say I started to hate squirrels.

So this year I'm trying this

I added shards of broken ceramic planter, so far it's worked, it sounds cruel though, hubby says to me "I can't believe you'd do that to those poor little furry cute animals what if it slices itself and gets hurt"

I said "well he shouldn't be in there digging in the first place"

So far it's worked, we'll see for how long though.

I've also planted some perennials we'll see how they do. Still have a lot of work to do and more space for more plants.

But it was nice to finally get out after a long, snowy winter and dig into the soil and do some yard clean up.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

It's been awhile since I've posted recipes on here, but today I thought I should share this easy and delicious

comfort food.

It came out of a small magazine called "Hometown Cooking" not sure if they still publish that.

Anyway, they had this recipe in it and it is so good!!

Here it is:

(I tweaked it a bit for my taste, I'll put those in parenthesis)

Southwest Spaghetti Pie

8 oz of dried Spaghetti (I used GF Brown Rice Spaghetti)

1/2 cup milk (you can use non dairy if you need to)

1 egg

1 lb ground pork (I used beef it's what I had)

1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)

1 medium red or green pepper chopped (3/4 cup)

1 clove garlic (I used 4 cloves, love garlic)

1 Tbsp chili powder (if you can't handle heat just use half)

1/2 tsp ground cumin (I added more to taste)

1/2 tsp dried oregano (I used 1 tsp)

1/2 tsp salt ( I added to taste)

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

(I had Italian mix on hand)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Cook spaghetti, (now some people who've cooked Gluten Free spaghetti have gotten quite frustrated, if you'd like to try it here is the way to cook it, water HAS TO BE BOILING, add salt to the water and a little bit of olive oil or whatever oil on hand, it helps prevent sticking. The trick with GF pasta is the water needs to always be boiling while it's cooking and you HAVE to stir every two minutes, to make sure the noodles don't stick. They won't stick if you follow these rules. Make sure there is enough room in the pot for the noodles to move around, do not cook any pasta in a small pot, it doesn't work well.

For this recipe I cooked the noodles for 10 minutes, they need to be al dente, which means when you bite into it, soft on the outside with a little firmness inside. This will cook through in the oven. It's simple, and so good, I do not miss regular pasta since I started eating GF pasta)

For all those who I may offend right now, sorry, but I broke the pasta in half, I know that's against the rules but for a casserole it's easier if you break them in half, in my opinion.

OK, after the pasta has cooked, drain well. Return pasta to the pot, add milk and egg and stir quickly into the hot pasta.

Transfer pasta to a lightly greased 3 quart baking dish.

In a large Skillet cook meat, onion, pepper and garlic until meat is cooked through.

Drain any fat. Add spices and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce next, (I added a teaspoon of sugar, helps with the acidity) cook 2 more minutes.

Spoon meat over top of pasta,

In a bowl combine the shredded cheeses and top meat with the cheese.

Bake uncovered for 10 minutes, or until bubbly. Let it stand for 5 minutes before cutting into.

ENJOY!!

It has a spicy kick to it and very flavorful. Leave me a comment and tell me if you liked it.

Please Ask

About Me

I am orginally a NYC girl, born and raised then I met my honey, and we got married and moved to southern PA where he is from. Now we live in Maryland, in a city/country, a little bit of both worlds. We have a humble home with our three kitties. I love to sew which you will see pictures of my latest projects. I make handbags,aprons, home decor and love playing with paper and rubber stamps. I enjoy gardening,baking and cooking. My family and friends are extremely important to me. I hope you enjoy my blog and I can make you smile. Please sign in and leave me a comment, that also makes me smile. Thank you for visiting me.

Encouraging Words

Isaiah 41:10,13 "Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not gaze about, for I am your God. I will fortify you. I will really help you. I will really keep fast hold of you with my right hand of righteousness....For I, Jehovah your God, am grasping your right hand, the One saying to you 'Do not be afraid. I myself will help you.'